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Far-right riots have been happening in the UK, causing property damage, injuries to police and bystanders and a lot of talk. There have been 500 arrests so far.
I have a suggestion.
The thing is, a lot of young men and some women really like to fight. They love it, in fact. They love the excitement, the noise, the planning, but most of all what they like is the fighting.
I know this because I enjoy fighting too. I was a bloody menace back in the days when I still drank and I still love martial arts. Most people don’t like fighting — they’re afraid of it and rightly. But for idiots like me and the far-right rioters — the lads in the ruck, not the Yaxley-Lennons who cause chaos from a safe distance in Cyprus — fighting is the purest form of physical gambling there is.
And the high it gives you, as you start fighting, as you match with another human with everything on the line, is absolutely fantastic. No, honestly, it is. It’s to cocaine what Mt Everest is to the pimple on my arse. I’m not talking guns, by the way, which turn fighting into something completely different. I mean fists, feet, possibly a weapon or two. I haven’t had a real fight since the 80s but I remember every second, every time. It’s extremely addictive, obviously.